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Remembering the 1960s . . . . Social and Cultural Conflicts
Polly Horn will present the first Big Walnut Area Historical Society program of 2015 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 13^th in the Myers inn Meeting Room. She will remember her life in Cleveland and the social and cultural conflicts is presented. The public is invited to attend. After growing up in Sunbury and graduating from the elite Lake Forest College, Horn took a job in the black Hough slums in Cleveland.
	Photo from Cleveland School Site
As the only white person working for the Addison Road YWCA, she witnessed the changes in the community as it addressed Women’s Rights, Religious Freedoms and then the racial riots. Her journalism background and involvement in the nation’s first Quaker March for Peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis while in college made her look at these times with a different eye. "When I took the job I naively thought this was a street of middle income homes with families who had mothers and fathers," noted Horn. "Yes, the homes had been once single family 2 story brick homes with big front porches but I soon learned there were usually 4 fatherless families in each house with one bathroom which no longer flushed." There was no grass in the lawns, no flowers around the porch and no food in the houses. While our nation is once again facing racial strife of the same magnitude as the ‘60s race riots which eventually burned the homes and the Y on Addison Road, we can learn from our history and perhaps find guidance for our future. Horn is Curator of the Myers Inn Museum which is owned and operated by the Big Walnut Area Historical Society. It is open 12-3 on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays and 10-3 on Saturdays facing the southwest corner of Sunbury’s village square. Admission is by donation. In case of severe weather, check the website to see if the program has been cancelled or the museum is closed.
Return to Programs		(01/03/2015)